The big day is over. The head is throbbing. The kids are bored.
Their presents are either already broken or run out of
battery-power. Thoughts are inexorably turning to the year we are
about to leave behind and the one yet to come.

I first met Denis Donaldson, or rather I met his name, a few days
after June 27 1970. The word on people’s lips on the streets of
the Short Strand was that he and a few other teenage members of
the local IRA saved the people of the Strand from a loyalist
pogrom.

Sinn Féin has withdrawn its support for the British government’s
controversial Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill, which deals with
the issue of individuals on-the-run (OTRs) from outstanding
conflict-related prosecutions.

An American chef linked to an alleged “break-in” at the PSNI
police headquarters in Belfast has said it is very possible he
has been set up by British agent Denis Donaldson and PSNI Special
Branch detectives.

Breathtaking - that’s the only word. I normally approach
political life with a healthy cynicism, at the back of my mind
the deathless words of Jeremy Paxman: ‘Why is this lying bastard
lying to me?’ But this past week has still left me empty of
breath.

The first Irish gay couple to form a civil partnership hope “many
more” will follow. Grainne Close and Shannon Sickels exchanged
vows in a private ceremony at Belfast City Hall before emerging
to the cheers of supporters, the crush of photographers and
opposition from hymn-singing protesters.

The row over the collapse of charges against three men accused of
operating an “IRA spy ring” at the Belfast Assembly has continued
following the refusal of the British Direct Ruler Peter Hain to
make a statement on the matter.

Sinn Féin has clashed in the Dublin parliament with the embattled
Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, over his admission that
he leaked official documents to the media in an attempt to
destroy an independent government watchdog body.

Having spent the past four years monitoring Shannon airport
through wet summers and cold winter nights, I think I can speak
for the small group of Shannon watchers when I say it would be
nice to be able to trust official assurances.

The British government’s ‘Dirty Tricks’ policy in the North has
been exposed after those still charged in the bogus case of the
‘IRA spy ring’, which brought about the collapse of the
institutions of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, were all found
not guilty.

In one of the biggest ever demonstrations of its kind, up to
100,000 people took part in a march in Dublin on Saturday in
support of the Irish Ferries workers and against wage
exploitation in the Irish economy.

The US ambassador to Ireland, James Kenny, is being asked to
answer questions on the illegal transport of abductees through
Shannon airport amid increasing controversy over the Dublin
government’s dealings with the Bush administration.

The British government is being urged to create a permanent rolling
electoral register after it emerged that 100,000 voters in the
Six Counties remain disenfranchised despite the compilation of a
new list.

There are also potential ramifications for the media in
publishing announcements or claims from proscribed organisations
since such statements could be interpreted as promoting the
objectives of terrorism or inciting fear.